EASTERN CAPE NEWS - A large group of seasonal farm workers, who were returning to their homes in the Eastern Cape, were stopped last week at the Aberdeen roadblock and placed in quarantine at the Fish River Resort near Port Alfred.
Most of the 64 people had been working on farms in the Ceres and Witzenberg areas of the Western Cape.
"We can confirm that a high number of workers were accommodated for screening and testing into facilities identified by Government to check their status before they could be released," said Khuselwa Rantjie, Eastern Cape Transport spokesperson.
"The province wants to ensure that those who have the virus are identified for isolation and management," she added.
The workers and taxi drivers arrived at the resort very late last Wednesday night. Testing by teams from the Department of Health started on Thursday, and was completed on Friday morning.
The workers were confined to their individual rooms, where they were served all meals.
They left the resort on Saturday, but no information has been received from the Department of Health on the results of the tests.
According to Vuyokazi Mbanjwa, spokesperson for the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, the department is responsible for accommodation costs.
She said that there were no suitable facilities for the large group in the Aberdeen area.
The fact that the province has to pick up the tab for these quarantine costs has added fuel to the anger felt by many officials in the Eastern Cape, who feel that the Western Cape has been slack in enforcing checks on vehicles travelling to the province.
A source at Fish River Resort would not divulge their charge per person, but she confirmed that the normal cost for a room is at least R1 300 per night for two people.
No response has been received from the Western Cape Department of Transport as to how vehicles get as far as Aberdeen before being checked.
Rantjie has appealed to provinces and companies, where workers are travelling to the Eastern Cape during this period of grace, to do onsite screening and testing before allowing travel to the Eastern Cape, saying that this is critical in curbing transmission.
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